A man in commerce, where men prey on their kind, must be alive and alert to what is going on, or while he dreams, his competitor will seize upon his birthright.  And so you see why poets are poor and artists often beg.

And the summing up of this sermonette is that all men are equally rich, only some thru fate are able to muster their mental legions on the plains of their being and count them, while others are never able to do so.

But what think you is necessary before a person can come into full possession of his subconscious treasures?  Well, I’ll tell you:  It is not ease, nor prosperity, nor requited love, nor worldly security—­not these.

“You sing well,” said the master, impatiently, to his best pupil, “but you will never sing divinely until you have given your all for love, and then been neglected and rejected, and scorned and beaten, and left for dead.  Then, if you do not exactly die, you will come back, and when the world hears your voice it will mistake you for an angel and fall at your feet.”

And the moral is, that as long as you are satisfied and comfortable, you use only the objective mind and live in the world of sense.  But let love be torn from your grasp and flee as a shadow—­living only as a memory in a haunting sense of loss; let death come and the sky shut down over less worth in the world; or stupid misunderstanding and crushing defeat grind you into the dust, then you may arise, forgetting time and space and self, and take refuge in mansions not made with hands; and find a certain sad, sweet satisfaction in the contemplation of treasures stored up where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.

And thus looking out into the Eternal, you entirely forget the present and go forth into the Land of Subconsciousness—­the Land of Spirit, where yet dwell the gods of ancient and innocent days?  Is it worth the cost?

Psychology of a Religious Revival

Traveling to and fro over the land and up and down in it are men who manage street-fairs.

Let it be known that a street-fair or Mardi Gras is never a spontaneous expression of the carnival spirit on the part of the townspeople.  These festivals are a business—­carefully planned, well advertised and carried out with much astuteness.

The men who manage street-fairs send advance agents, to make arrangements with the local merchants of the place—­these secure the legal permits that are necessary.

A week is set apart for the carnival, much advertising is done, the newspapers, reflecting the will of the many, devote pages to the wonderful things that will happen.  The shows arrive—­the touters, the spielers, the clowns, the tumblers, the girls in tights, the singers!  The bands play—­the carnival is on!  The object of the fair is to boom the business of the town.  The object of the professional managers of the fair is to make money for themselves, and this they do thru the guaranty of the merchants, or a percentage on concessions, or both.